Self's Murder

Zusatztext Praise for the Gerhard Self series: “Like any fictional detective worth spending time with, Self . . . transmits a strong sense of being comfortable with who he is, imperfections and all.” — The New York Times “Darkly Intriguing. . . . Entertaining.”— O , The Oprah Magazine Informationen zum Autor Bernhard Schlink was born in Germany. He is the author of the internationally best-selling novel The Reader, which was an Oprah's Book Club selection. He lives in Berlin and New York. Klappentext Gerhard Self, the seventy-something, sambuca-drinking, Sweet-Afton smoking sleuth returns in a riveting new mystery about money-laundering, murder, and mafiosi.Despite his failing health and his girlfriend's pleading, Gerhard Self won't stop doing what he does best—investigating. And his most recent case is one of the most intriguing of his career. Herr Welker desperately wants to write a history of his bank, but to do so he needs Self to track down a mysterious silent partner. Self takes the job, but is soon accosted by a man who frantically hands him a suitcase full of cash and speeds off in a car, only to crash into a tree, dying instantly. Perplexed, and convinced there is more to the case than he is being told, Self follows the money. Soon he finds himself traveling to eastern Germany, where he encounters some of the most unsavory villains he has met yet. Leseprobe 1In the endIn the end I did head back there.I didn't have Nurse Beatrix sign me out. She wouldn't even let me tackle the short, easy paths leading from the Speyerer Hof Clinic to the big Ehrenfriedhof Cemetery and the Bierhelder Hof, let alone the long steep path that leads up to the Kohlhof. In vain I told her how years ago my wife and I used to go skiing on the Kohlhof: in the morning we'd head up the slope, the bus filled with people, skis, ski poles, and toboggans. Until sundown hundreds would swarm over the rutted slope, more brown than white, with its dilapidated ski jump. At lunchtime pea soup was served at the Kohlhof Restaurant. Klara had better skis than I, was a better skier, and laughed whenever I fell. I would tug at the leather straps of the bindings and grit my teeth; Amundsen had conquered the South Pole with skis that were even more antiquated. In the evening we were tired and happy."Let me head over to the Kohlhof, Nurse Beatrix. I'll take it easy. I want to see it again and remember old times.""You're doing a good enough job remembering right here, Herr Self. Would you be telling me about it otherwise?"The only thing Nurse Beatrix will allow me to do after a two-week stay at the Speyerer Hof Clinic is to walk a few steps to the elevator, ride down to the lobby, walk a few steps to the terrace, cross it, and go down some stairs to the lawn around the fountain. Nurse Beatrix is generous only when it comes to the view."Look at that! What a beautiful view!"She's right. I'm sharing a room with a tax inspector who's suffering from a stomach ailment, and the view from the window is indeed panoramic and beautiful: over the trees and valleys to the Haardt Mountains. I look through the window and think how this region, where I landed by accident during the war, had grown on me and become my home. But was I to think about that all day?So I waited until the tax inspector fell asleep after lunch, then swiftly and silently took my suit out of the closet, slipped into it, and managed to make my way to the gate without bumping into a single nurse or doctor I knew. The guard didn't care whether I was an escaping patient or a departing visitor, so I had him call me a cab.We drove down into the valley, first between meadows and fruit trees, then through tall woods, the sun casting bright spots through the treetops onto the road and the underbrush. We drove past a wooden shack. In the old days the town had been quite a distance away, and hikers would make a last rest stop at this shack before returni...

Product details

• Authors: Bernhard Schlink
• Assisted by: Peter Constantine (Translation)
• Publisher: Vintage USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 11.08.2009
• EAN: 9780375709098
• ISBN: 978-0-375-70909-8
• No. of pages: 272
• Dimensions: 132 mm x 203 mm x 14 mm
• Series: Gerhard Self; Gerhard Self
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense